Mallard's Death

Commonly explored throughout her works, the idea of marriage inhibiting a woman’s freedom is the driving force behind Kate Chopin’s contextual objections to propriety. In particular, The Awakening and “The Story of an Hour” explore the lives of women seeking marital liberation and individuality. Mrs. Chopin, who was raised in a matriarchal household, expresses her opposition to the nineteenth century patriarchal society while using her personal experiences to exemplify her feminist views.

Written in 1894, “The Story of an Hour” is a story of a woman who, through the erroneously reported death of her husband, experienced true freedom. Both tragic and ironic, the story deals with the boundaries imposed on women by society in the nineteenth century. The author Kate Chopin, like the character in her story, had first-hand experience with the male-dominated society of that time and had experienced the death of her husband at a young age (Internet). The similarity between Kate Chopin and her heroine can only leave us to wonder how much of this story is fiction and how much is personal experience.

She realizes she can do what she wants and does not have to answer to a man any longer. Louise can finally be her own person. The shock of her husband being still alive and the disappointment of her recent revelation being now untrue, causes her to die suddenly. Of course she had to be killed off in the story, at this time a women thinking positively of divorce was

     I just accepted Louise's reaction to her husband's death, when the most unexpected happens; her husband is actually alive and he enters the room shocking everyone, and Louise especially, as she is shocked to death. The doctors say she died of joy, when the reader knows that she actually died because she had a drams of freedom and could not go back to living under her husband's will again. Then her dreams were shattered yet again due to this terrible man.

This newfound freedom is in effect a new motivation for Louise. Before experiencing such freedom, Louise was petrified of the thought of life being long; now however, she felt herself wishing, even praying for life to be long. This is evidenced with the following quote, "She breathed a quick prayer that life might be long. It was only yesterday she had thought with a shudder that life might be long." (15). This depicts an ever embracing Louise, finally liberated of the powerful institution of marriage. What is more, this quote serves to further support the idea that Louise indeed felt trapped, she was unhappy and yet, the thought of her husband dying hadn't crossed her mind, only the relief from her own passing was her wish.

By the repetition of the words as a reader we come to understand the meaning behind the story and how Louise actually felt towards her husband. The theme of the story is mainly the forbidden joy of independence. Due to that the story was written years ago where women were very dependent to their husbands Louise actual feelings of joy and happiness towards her husband death was forbidden by society during this

Chopin used words and details to set a tone as to how the reader should feel about Louise Mallard and the situation she is in. Chopin described the physical exhaustion that haunted her body and how she was pressed down from it. She wrote “There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy armchair; into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body and seemed to reach into her soul” (547). Without third person limited omniscient point of view, the reader would not have been able to know or feel the pain that Louise was feeling. Chopin also describes how she felt free because of her husband’s death and how she has accepted it, she says, “There would be no one to live for her during those coming years; she would live for herself” (547).

Chopin's use of language effectively conveys the intensity of the emotions that overcome Louise. Repetition of the word "free" reveals the exaltation Louise experiences in being released from possession by her husband's will. The diction aptly portrays the significance, emotionally and physically, of Louise's transformation. Tumultuously, Louise's bosom, the seat of passion, rose and fell as the "monstrous joy" possessed her. As the elixir of life "courses" through her once weak heart, Louise's "pulses beat fast." When Louise's fancy runs "riot along those days ahead of her", the reader feels the excitement Louise feels. Through the image of Louise as a winged "goddess of Victory", her inner strength from triumph over repression becomes palpable. That strength is reaffirmed in Chopin's use of words that connote potency. Louise has a "clear and exalted perception" of herself.

This stereotype is negative, as if having emotions is a bad thing. However, it is the women’s emotions that alters the course of their stories. According to Jamil, Louise has been repressing her emotions for many years to avoid this stereotype and to please her husband. When she looks out the window and sees the spring weather, it causes her to feel joy for the first time in a long time. All of a sudden, a rush of emotion crashes over her, and she discovers her true self (Chopin 15). Jamil contends that emotions are an enormous part of who one is, and without them, life is far harder to endure. This is exactly what happens to Louise. When she thinks that her husband is dead, these emotions return, and she can be her true self (Chopin 15-16). However, Jamil explains that psychological health can affect physical health, and the effect of repressing herself for so long might be a direct cause of Louise’s heart troubles. When she allows herself to feel, her heart pounds strongly and surely, but when she sees her husband again, her heart troubles return. In that moment, she allows herself to succumb to her failing heart. It is a lack of emotion that kills her, not a

Chopin wrote in her story that Louise breathed a quick prayer that her life might be long. This is ironic because she has a voice now and she doesn't want to lose it, but the doctor said she dies from a joy that kills. The reader knows that Louise dies from heart failure because she was shocked to see her husband still alive. Chopin is revealing that now that Louise has a voice she wants to keep it for as long has she can.

Kate Chopin is known as one of the greatest feminist authors of her time. She grew up around independent, widowed women: her great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother. With her father’s death due to a train wreck, and her husband’s death from“swamp fever,” Chopin was left alone to support her six children. According to Nina Baym, the author of Chopin’s biography, influences from strong women in Chopin’s life led to why she wrote about desires, limited aspects of women’s lives, and how women began to challenge the male-dominated culture (550). A lack of men as chief figures in Chopin’s life prevented her from experiencing a tradition of submission by women to men. Additionally, many of Chopin’s works were influenced by realism and feminism.

The narrator shows that Louise does feel some grief when she first hears the news of her husband. However, there is a shift in how the narrator presents Louise and her role. When she begins to think about Brently in a coffin or grave, the narrator states that “She knew she would weep again when she saw the kind, tender hands folded in death...But she beyond that bitter moment a long procession of years to come that would belong to her absolutely” (Chopin 1). This section that the narrator displays, reveals that Louise acknowledges that Brently’s death is upsetting but she is is willing to attain her independence from her him and shape her own identity without him. Furthermore, the narrator illuminates Louise’s want for liberty, when they make Louise compare love to freedom. The narrator show Louise contemplating this idea by saying “What could love, the unsolved mystery, count for in face of this possession of self-assertion which she suddenly recognized as the strongest impulse of her being” (Chopin 2). This illustrates that Louise would prefer to be completely free, rather than have love, because to her love means very little in comparison to not having any ties to someone or something. Louise, according to the narrator, is looking forward to being completely alone, and no longer have to live for her husband, as women had to

In the short story, “The Story of an Hour,” author Kate Chopin presents the character of Mrs. Louis Mallard. She is an unhappy woman trapped in her discontented marriage. Unable to assert herself or extricate herself from the relationship, she endures it. The news of the presumed death of her husband comes as a great relief to her, and for a brief moment she experiences the joys of a liberated life from the repressed relationship with her husband. The relief, however, is short lived. The shock of seeing him alive is too much for her bear and she dies. The meaning of life and death take on opposite meaning for Mrs. Mallard in her marriage because she lacked the courage to stand up for herself.

`The Story of an Hour' was written in the nineteenth century and during this time highly restrictive gender roles forbade women to live as they saw fit. Kate Chopin presents in her story,

Through symbolically and ironically suggesting that gender definitions delimit the feminine self, the opening of “The Story of an Hour” hints of the tragedy that pervades the tale.  Because of Mrs. Mallard’s “heart trouble,” her sister and her husband’s friend rush to her side to break the news of her husband’s death in a gentle manner (644).  On a literal level, Louise Mallard’s condition suggests that she has a congenital